DBG - September 15 - Daniel 4-6

In this chapter Nebuchadnezzar is humbled by God.

vs. 1-3 – This chapter is an account written by Nebuchadnezzar himself.  Critics say there is no historical basis for this, and they would be right if all we had to go by were the known inscriptions and written history from the Babylonians themselves.  However, there is a period of time towards the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign where the once very active leader stops campaigning and focuses on Babylon.  This would easily be a cover for what was really happening.  Why would the bureaucratic machine of the empire allow news to get out of their great king going insane and then worshipping a new God?

vs. 4-18 – Nebuchadnezzar has another dream, which this time he remembers.  Again, only Daniel is able to interpret it.  The dream is of a great tree that a watcher (angel) declares that the tree should be cut down.  The stump would be shackled.  There is a strange detail in vs. 16 that shows this is not just about a literal tree: the heart of the tree would be changed from a man to a beast until seven times (unspecified if this is months, years, etc.).  Not in vs. 18 as the king charges Daniel that he acknowledges Daniel has the “spirit of the holy god”, filtering his understanding of Daniel’s God through the king’s lens of polytheism.

vs. 19-27 – Daniel reveals the meaning.  The tree represents Nebuchadnezzar, who had grown to be the greatest rule the earth had yet seen.  He would be humbled before God.  He would lose his mind and live as a wild beast for “seven times” (again, unspecified what length of time is meant).  Daniel calls on the great king to repent and humble himself before God.

vs. 28-37 – 12 months later, Nebuchadnezzar surveys his capital and his heart is lifted in pride over his accomplishments.  He loses his sanity and lives as a wild beast.  He must have been sequestered away from public view during this time.  He finally regains his mind.  Through his experience he was made to acknowledge the great God.  Reese’s Chronological Bible gives the seven years of madness the range of 569-562 B.C.

In this chapter Babylon falls after the mysterious hand writes on the wall.

vs. 1-4 – The year is 539 B.C.  The high king of Babylon is Nabonidus, whose son Belshazzar was made ruler over Babylon.  Nabonidus had spent years in exile in Tayma in southwestern Arabia.  Cyrus and the Persians had grown in power and no had Babylon itself under siege.  Belshazzar still led in a religious festival, even with an enemy literally outside their gates.  In their drunken revelry, the Babylonians brought in the sacred vessels looted from the Temple to use during their celebration.

vs. 5-9 – A supernatural appearance of a hand began writing in the plaster on the wall.  Belshazzar is scared out of his mind.  No one could read the message.  Belshazzar offers great rewards to the man who could interpret it, including making him the third most powerful man in Babylon.  That is an important detail.  Belshazzar could only offer the #3 position because he was only #2 under his father Nabonidus.

vs. 10-16 – The queen-mother suggests sending for Daniel, who is in his eighties now.  Daniel is brought in and the king makes the same promise of reward to him that had been offered to the other wise men.

vs. 17-29 – Daniel refuses the gifts (you probably did not want those with the Persians about to take the city!).  Daniel reviews the example of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and humiliation and says Belshazzar should have learned from it.  The message was four Hebrew words: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.  MENE (“numbered, counted”) is used twice to signify God had measured the kingdom and its time was up.  TEKEL (“weighed, balanced”) means Babylon and its rulers had been found wanting.  PERES (the singular form of UPHARSIN, meaning “divided”) shows the fate of Babylon in being divided among the alliance of Medes and Persians.

vs. 30-31 – Babylon falls and Persia is now the great world power under Cyrus the Great.  The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Persian army diverted the Euphrates River that ran under the walls of the city, entered through the riverbed, and took the city without a fight.

In this chapter Daniel is preserved in the Lion’s Den.

vs. 1-9 – The year is 538 B.C.  Daniel could be as old as ninety at this time.  A man named Darius is the Persian ruler placed in charge of Babylon under Cyrus the Great.  In the upheaval that came with changing empires, enemies of Daniel sought to remove him by a conspiracy.  They tricked Darius into signing a decree that said no one could pray or make a petition to anyone except the king for 30 days, probably selling it as a test of loyalty.  They knew the only thing that Daniel would be guilty of was being faithful to His God.

vs. 10-15 – Daniel continues to pray as he normally did, with an open window toward the direction of Jerusalem.  The trap is sprung and Daniel is arrested.  There was no legal means to change his fate of being fed to the lions.

vs. 16-24 – Daniel is cast into the lions’ den.  The entrance is sealed shut.  The king went early the next morning and Daniel was still alive.  God had sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths.  Daniel is retrieved from his peril, then the scheming rulers and their families are thrown in.  You cannot say that the lions were not hungry, because they viciously tore into the others that were cast in their den.

vs. 25-28 – Darius sends out a proclamation praising Daniel’s mighty God. 

How many public figures can say that they served for 70 years without one compromise or lapse of character?  Daniel could.  He was not perfect and was as much a sinner as you or I.  What makes Daniel so special is his faithfulness.  One of my favorite sayings is, “Christianity is measured in decades.”  Too many see the Christian life as a fifty yard dash when it truly is a marathon.  Be faithful over the long run.

Our hymn today is “Belshazzar” by John Newton.  It uses the doomed king as a warning towards sinners to seek Christ.

Poor sinners! little do they think
With whom they have to do!
But stand securely on the brink
Of everlasting woe.

Chaldea's king profanely bold,
The Lord of Hosts defy'd.
But vengeance soon his boasts control'd,
And humbled all his pride.

He saw a hand upon the wall,
(And trembled on his throne)
Which wrote his sudden dreadful fall
In characters unknown.

See him o'erwhelm'd with deep distress!
His eyes with anguish roll;
His looks and loosen'd joints express
The terrors of his soul.

His pomp, and music, guests and wine,
No more delight afford.
O sinners, e'er this ease be thine,
Begin to seek the Lord.

The law like this hand writing stands,
And speaks the wrath of God;
But Jesus answers its demands,
And cancels it with blood.